Category Archives: Pueblo

Oh the memories growing up with “Denny’s”. It was a common hangout during my high school and college years. Late night, sitting for hours, catching up with friends. Even after college, it was a great location for after dancing/clubbing meet ups and place to sober up before heading home. This iconic table service diner-style restaurant chain is certainly an image of the American heartland and definition of American type food. It is called “Denny’s” or “Denny’s Diner” and consists of over 1,600 restaurants across the United States, including Guam, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Curacao, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Venezuela, Honduras, Japan, New Zealand, Qatar, the Phillipines, and the United Arab Emirates. It is famous for being open 24 hours, 7 days a week, year round except where required by law to be closed. They are open on holidays and late nights. They place themselves close to interstates, freeways, bars, and service areas.

A humble history spurring from a donut shop, Denny’s was birthed by Harold Butler and Richard Jezak as “Danny’s Donuts” in Lakewood California in 1953. In 1956, Jezak left the business leaving it to Butler who changed the image and concept from a donut shop to a coffee shop renamed “Danny’s coffee shops” operating 24 hours a day. By 1959 they changed their name to “Denny’s Coffee Shops” as another chain went by the name of “Coffee Dan’s” in Los Angeles. By 1961 they simplified their name to “Denny’s”. They became a franchise in 1963 and most of the locations today are franchise owned. In 1977 they introduced their very popular Grand Slam breakfast. By 1981 there were over 1,000 restaurants throughout the United States. They also absorbed many of the Sambo restaurants. By 1994 they became the largest corporate sponsor of “Save the Children” charity. Operating non-stop, 24 hours, many locations were built without locks and some are said to have lost their keys. With headquarters in La Mirada, California until 1989, they relocated to Irvine, California, then Spartanburg, South Carolina becoming acquired by Trans World Corporation in 1987.

They became notorious for the “free birthday meals” to anyone on their birthdates, but this only survived from 1990-1993 but was cut off due to over-use and abuse. They offer a free Birthday Build-Your-Own-Slam on a customer’s proven and tracked birth date. By 1994 they changed their theme, outlook, and decoration with a lighter color scheme. They were reviewed by the October 2004 Dateline NBC news story called “Dirty Dining” criticizing Denny’s cleanliness, safety, and operations pulling the health inspection records of over 100 of its establishments for a 15 month span totaling all of the critical violations that could lead to adverse effects of a customer’s health compared to Applebee’s, Bob Evans, Chili’s, IHOP, Outback, Red Lobster, Ruby Tuesday, TGI Friday’s, and Waffle House. They had the fewest violations averaging less than one violation per restaurant which they proudly boast is due to their successful model of their “principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points.”

However in 1934, they were damaged by their involvement in a series of discrimination lawsuits over food servers denying or providing inferior service to racial minorities from African Americans to Native Americans. That year, six black U.S. Secret Service agents visited a Denny’s in Annapolis, Maryland and were forced to wait an hour for service while their white companions were seated immediately. The 1994 class action lawsuit filed by black customers who were refused service, forced to wait longer, or pay more than white customers led to a $54.4 million settlement. In 1995 a African American customer in a Sacramento California location was told that he and his friends had to pay up front at the counter before ordering their meals, because, according to the waittress, said some black guys had been in earlier who made a scene and walked out without paying their bill, so the manager now wanted all blacks to pay up front. In 1997, six Asian American students from Syracuse University were discriminated upon late at night at a Denny’s having to wait more than a 1/2 hour as white patrons were served before them. After they complained to management, they were forced to leave by security, then afterwards a group of white men came out of Denny’s and attacked them, some beaten unconscious. Denny’s addressed this with racial sensitivity training programs for their employees and worked hard to improve public relations featuring African-Americans in their commercials. They made headway and was awarded in 2001 by Fortune Magazine to be the “Best Company for Minorities”. By 2006/2007 they topped Black Enterprise’s “Best 40 Companies for Diversity.” However in 2017, a Vancouver Denny’s made an Indigenous woman pay for her meal before it was served. The restaurant called the police on her after she left claiming she had a sharp-metal object in her pocket.

June of 2017, eight Denny’s in Colorado Springs and Pueblo, Colorado were immediately shut down because the franchise owner failed to pay close to $200,000 in back taxes as well as $30,000 in sales tax from the previous year. Many of these employees also filed that their accounts were not paid, received bounced checks and paychecks not arriving on time. The IRS came in and closed the locations, seizing property, and no advance notice given to its employees for the closures, leaving many without work or preparation for the losses. The franchise owner fled the state of Colorado.

“Punk Rock Flea Market” @ The Red Raven, Pueblo, Colorado* Red Raven Studios * 1143 E. Evans * Pueblo, Colorado * Saturday, April 24th, 2010 * http://www.myspace.com/526688662 * All Ages Event *
From noon until about midnight, a host of talent as well as arts/crafts/collectibles/shirts/candles/and punk rock oriented gifts were presented to Pueblo’s alternative culture for a fundraiser held to get supplies and gear for Pueblo’s first May Day Celebration to be held May Day weekend. The Benefit brought together talent from Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and beyond. Tables were offered at an affordable $7 which included entrance to the show. Inbetween the shows, Nick and Chris from the ‘The Nicotine Fits’ were spinning records. The stage was blessed by the Conjugal Visits (members of the Nicotine Fits), M.D., Sonic Vomit, the Naked Bowlers, Katey Sleeveless, Inaiah Lujan, Made Up Minds, One51, The Good Morning Accordian Terrorist from Colorado Springs, Grace Champe, Brain Distortion, The Asssault Shakers, and many others. The Fundraiser was to raise money for the local artistic and musical communitie’s celebration of May Day – which they see as for the “International Worker’s Day of May Day” as well as the pre-Christian holiday of Beltane for rebirth and fertility. Overall as a nineteenth century working class struggle to gain the 8-hour work day when working conditions at the time were severe and common for a 10-16 hour day in unsafe conditions. From the National convention held in Chicago, 1884 – it was decreed that “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labor from and after May 1, 1886″. It was also from here that anarchist proclamations were printed appealed to the working class ”
•Workingmen to Arms! •War to the Palace, Peace to the Cottage, and Death to LUXURIOUS IDLENESS. •The wage system is the only cause of the World’s misery. It is supported by the rich classes, and to destroy it, they must be either made to work or DIE. •One pound of DYNAMITE is better than a bushel of BALLOTS! •MAKE YOUR DEMAND FOR EIGHT HOURS with weapons in your hands to meet the capitalistic bloodhounds, police, and militia in proper manner. Not surprisingly the entire city was prepared for mass bloodshed, reminiscent of the railroad strike a decade earlier when police and soldiers gunned down hundreds of striking workers.” It was on May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration in history for this purpose. In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day agitators, 40,000 went out on strike with the anarchists in the forefront of the public’s eye. With their fiery speeches and revolutionary ideology of direct action, anarchists and anarchism became respected and embraced by the working people and despised by the capitalists. To celebrate this important step in American history – the local community will bring together a celebration to honor those who stood up for their righs on this day, even though they were met with police harrassment, beatings, lock-outs, and riots. From these riots – eight anarchists rose above the rest – Albert Parsons, August Spies, Samuel Fielden, Oscar Neebe, Michael Schwab, George Engel, Adolph Fischer and Louis Lingg – who were arrested and convicted of murder, though only three were even present at Haymarket and those three were in full view of all when the bombing occurred. The jury in their trial was comprised of business leaders in a gross mockery of justice similar to the Sacco-Vanzetti case thirty years later, or the trials of AIM and Black Panther members in the seventies. The entire world watched as these eight organizers were convicted, not for their actions, of which all of were innocent, but for their political and social beliefs. On November 11, 1887, after many failed appeals, Parsons, Spies, Engel and Fisher were hung to death. Louis Lingg, in his final protest of the state’s claim of authority and punishment, took his own life the night before with an explosive device in his mouth. Today we see tens of thousands of activists embracing the ideals of the Haymarket Martyrs and those who established May Day as an International Workers’ Day. This is why they will celebrate May Day. The Event had quite a good crowd in attention through the day and evening, with a next-to-free potluck smorgasboard of delicious food and plethera of entertainment. The bands were great and fun was had by all.

A little coffee shop meets laundromat where you can eat, drink, and enjoy free wifi while awaiting your clothes to wash and dry. With an electronic guage above the door – you can see when your laundry is done without stepping away from your coffee to check. Friendly staff and clean establishment. The coffee and drinks seem to be all pre-made, but the pad is definitely a class above most laundromats. Ratin: 2.5 stars out of 5.

Pueblo, Colorado
“Home of the Heroes”, “Steel City”, and “P-Town” are all well known names for this industrial center of the high Colorado desert and grasslands. In 2000 – Pueblo boasted of over 102,000 in population, and it has steadily grown from there. Just an hour to the south of the bustling Conservative and Military center known as “Colorado Springs” and 3 hours south of the metropolitan big city culture of Denver – Pueblo has an interesting western and southern appeal under the panorama of its northern neighbours. To many Coloradoans – its a blip on the Interstate as one runs from New Mexico to Denver. Some don’t stop – but those that do – a pleasant hidden culture exists within. Pueblo sits at the confluence of the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek – with a nestled town in a semi-arid climate with not much more than 14 inches of precipitation annually. Pueblo also gets less snow than most cities in Colorado. It is also an important part of the Front Range Urban Corridor as it is one of the largest steel-producing cities in the United States – making it an industrial center, and thereby knicknamed “The Steel City”. It held the title of being the 2nd largest city in Colorado until 1960 and at that time was nicknamed “Second City” until Colorado Springs by-passed it with its military, arts, and metropolitan scrawl. Pueblo also hosts quite a unique alternative arts appeal and has a beautiful river walk along the Union Avenue Historic Commercial District. The City was plagued in the 20’s by the Great Floods that destroyed 1/3 of Pueblo’s downtown businesses – which still to this day they struggle from the catastrophic loss. With the decline of American Steel in the 70’s and 80’s, Pueblo was further hit with major economic losses. Pueblo has seen four Medal of Honor recipients, giving it the nickname of “Home of Heroes” – as Drew D. Dix, Raymond G. Murphy, William J. Crawford, and Carl L. Sitter made their homes here. Pueblo is also home to Colorado’s largest single event – the Colorado State Fair and Parade which is held in late summer. They also boast of a pretty spectacular annual Chili Festival as well.

Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dolls is back on tour this year with their 4th CD – 2009 release of “Bangtown”. They will have six weeks & 34 shows across the USA, then flying to Europe for five weeks through Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria & Hungary. As they make their way through the Plains and the Rocky Mountains, their stop off in Pueblo, Colorado was an amazing success. Unfortunately this 2009 tour marks the parting of the extroadinary sCare-oline who will be pursuing other life dreams after this tour, being replaced by Brandy Battery later this summer.